Gilmar Arellano, who co-founded HAY! Straws and serves as its CEO, pursued the plastic straw alternative due to his unconditional love for nature. 

“I wanted to protect the environment from the horrors of plastic waste,” he says, “and my experience in hospitality led me to identify one of the most egregious culprits: straws made from oil-based plastic.” 

Hand- selecting straw from small farms, cutting it, washing it, and packaging it in eco-friendly boxes revealed a natural solution to a dire modern problem. 

As he embraces the HAY! brand and its mission of reducing plastic pollution, Arellano also builds a strong, devoted team. Banking on their individual commitments to the cause, Arellano harnesses the powerful energy that comes with making a difference. 

“Rather than micro-manage, I choose to empower people,” he explains. While growing up in Lima, Peru, Arellano longed to start his own business after observing his father, who owned a clothing factory. 

Arellano spent plenty of time around his father’s business before they relocated to California when he was 14. There, he worked with hospitality, beverage, and tech brands. 

Arellano received his education from the University of California, Santa Barbara in the form of an international studies B.A. 

He also studied abroad at Delhi University and, in 2014, earned his Advanced Level Three certification from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, which aided him later on when he served as a sommelier. 

While pursuing his WSET certification, Arellano worked for Jardesca California Aperitiva, a Northern California-based producer. 

As market manager, he led the growth of the drink throughout the region, promoting it as an alternative to traditional European aperitifs. 

He then brought his expertise in expanding brand footprints to Allset, a pre-order and prepay restaurant reservation portal, at which he worked with now- business partner Alexey Savin. 

Arellano’s first advent into the sustainable product space—alongside Savin—came in 2015 in the form of a toothbrush, one that stands up on its own and sources only eco-friendly, biodegradable materials. 

MABLE’s commitment to supporting children’s education through toothbrush profits also became a core tenet of Arellano’s business practices. 

Arellano brought on Emma Grose, who he met while traveling through Vietnam, as the head of social media, photography, and website design. 

A strong thread of eco-friendliness began to take root in Arellano’s career as he lived out his appreciation for the Earth and its fruits through his work with wine and in sustainable product design. 

He soon learned just how much he could contribute to the planet by combining and applying his skill sets strategically. 

A few years after MABLE’s launch, Arellano continued to innovate by taking on the hospitality industry with his and Savin’s alternative to plastic straws, the HAY! Straw. 

With the help of Grose and Savin, Arellano brought the straw-made-from-straw to market in 2018 and started a revolution in earth-friendly products. 

To date, the team has helped replace more than 50 million plastic straws with HAY! straws. Arellano recently moved to Austin and can be found cycling, playing soccer, reading and traveling the world. 

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

• [00:00] Intro
• [01:03] Where Gil got the idea of alternative straws
• [02:48] How Gil got into sustainability
• [05:03] Timing is really important
• [05:58] The avenues that HAY! Straws targeted
• [07:32] Cold emails as a strategy
• [09:11] The difference in approaching cold emails
• [10:03] HAY! Straws’ email strat may not work for everyone
• [11:18] How to stand out in cold emails
• [12:25] Focusing on B2B for now
• [14:20] Sponsor: Electric Eye electriceye.io
• [14:40] Sponsor: Mesa apps.shopify.com/mesa
• [15:24] Sponsor: Gorgias gorgias.grsm.io/honest
• [16:51] Sponsor: Rewind rewind.com/honestecommerce
• [17:21] Sponsor: Klaviyo klaviyo.com/honest
• [18:08] Most challenging parts of a straw business
• [20:32] D2C approach for a B2B audience
• [23:34] Did HAY! Straws get pushback from going online?
• [24:48] What platform does HAY! Straws use?
• [26:39] Diversify your customer base
• [27:37] Things will go wrong so be prepared
• [28:46] Where to find HAY! Straws

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Compostable drinking straws that don’t suck haystraws.com
• Connect with Gil linkedin.com/in/gilmar-arellano-513a03aa
• Scale your business with electriceye.io
• Download Mesa at the Shopify App Store apps.shopify.com/mesa
• Level up your customer support gorgias.grsm.io/honest
• Respond to any of Rewind’s welcome emails and mention HONEST ECOMMERCE to get 1 month free rewind.io/honest
• Get started with a free account at klaviyo.com/honest

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